Serbia hopes for EU deal by end of year

Serbia wants to sign a stabilisation and accession agreement – the first step on the road to possible EU membership – by the end of year, according to a senior Serbian politician.

Oliver Dulic, speaker of the national assembly of Serbia, said that the best answer to those Serbians who questioned the country’s role in the EU was to “speed up the process”.

“I have tried to persuade commissioner [Olli] Rehn that the EU is supported by the majority of Serbians,” he told journalists after a meeting with the enlargement commissioner on Thursday.

“But we must become an EU member state as quickly as possible – or at least let our citizens know that we are making real, rapid progress towards the EU,” Dulic added.

“We could be a candidate country by the end of the year.”

Rehn was more reserved, saying that his conversation with the speaker had focused mainly on progress towards visa liberalisation and not on future accession.

“There is no political consensus in council on the issue of an SAA with Serbia,” he said.

“The commission has already initialled the SAA, in November 2007, and in my view the conditions are right for signature, subject to certain provisos.

“In the meantime I hope that discussions will continue among the member states.”

But he stressed that the results of the upcoming Serbian parliamentary elections were crucial to any further developments.

“We do not have a vote in the elections, but we hope that Serbian citizens will look closely at the manifestos of the parties and see which ones are in favour of joining the EU and of meeting the conditions to join the EU.

“We hope citizens will make the right choice.”

Any new government would have to show its commitment to continued cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague and to the eventual capture and prosecution of Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, he said.

The Serbian coalition government fell apart after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February, prompting the early elections.

The fear in some quarters is that the Kosovo issue will bring the Serbian nationalists back to power in Belgrade, scuppering the country’s chances of an imminent EU accession.

Neither Rehn nor Dulic mentioned the Kosovo issue directly – although Dulic stressed that it was good to talk to the commissioner after the recent “problems” in Serbia.

But it will undoubtedly be one of the issues over which Dulic calls for “talk and cooperation” between Serbia and the EU once the elections are over.

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